The problem with being passionate about technologies

By Anoop Madhusudanan

The title is a little bit misleading. There is nothing wrong with being passionate about technologies you love/like. In fact, I believe in being a passionate developer, and I appreciate having passionate people in my team and around me.

The real problem is – being subjective about something just because you are passionate about the same. Few quotes

Subjective

Subjective information is one person's opinion. In a newspaper, the editorial section is the place for subjectivity. It can be based on fact, but it is one person's interpretation of that fact. In this way, subjective information is also analytical.

Objective

Objective information reviews many points of view. It is intended to be unbiased. News reporters are supposed to be objective and report the facts of an event. Encyclopedias and other reference materials provide objective information.

Now, let us relate this to the developer’s life. Think about how you selected a specific framework or platform for your last assignment?

Whether your decisions were made using objective parameters? Like

POCs that confirms the merit of the framework/platform/approach

Team goals like cost, scope, quality

Valid references with in proper context

Or, you were driven by something subjective?

Your comfort level

Your own ego to prove what you suggested

The person who suggested a different approach was your wife’s ex boy friend

Subjectivity is bad because it’ll hurt others and yourself, and won’t let you focus on the real problems. Hence, especially with in a tech team, I think it is important to have a mutually agreed protocol to take architecture and design decisions objectively – and not subjectively.

I’ve observed that practicing two critical points should always help

Be open to explore suggestions from others - It is possible to have multiple ‘rights’ as two ways can lead to the same destination in the end.

If you have difference of opinions, be open, take that offline and have an in depth discussion focusing on the problem + solution.

So, I believe you can enjoy your coding better if you have an objective view point as I’ve myself fallen for my subjectivity multiple times. And a line of disclaimer

I wrote this post as an objective fact but is clearly a subjective opinion. lol.